Hello,
I usually do beer, wines, and ports. Here is my first venture into Melomel.
Ingredients
-------------
15.4 lbs (7 kg) of local farm honey
3lbs + 7lbs of farm fresh Saskatoons
Yeast Nutrients
Dry Yeast
Potassium Metabisulfite
Potassium Sorbate
Peptic Enzyme
Bentonite
Extra Equipment
------------------
Flask and Stir Plate
Heat belt
C02
graduated cylinder
wine thief
scale
Prep
-------------
Freeze your berries! This helps with extraction from the berries as the water in the berries freezes and breaks the membranes.
Yeast Starter (well, sort of)
-----------------------------
Normally I would have used a liquid yeast and created a yeast starter. This time I was using a dry yeast. I added 1L of warm water, yeast nutrients, and dry yeast to my flask and aerated it for 15 mins on my stir plate.
Instructions
----------------------
1. Warm your honey, I did not boil my honey at all. I wanted to keep as much of the flower profile included in the honey as possible. Plus I read too much on the big debate regarding the need to boil honey and just went simple.
2. Clean and Sanitize everything
3. Add honey and warm water to reach target volumn to primary bucket and mix well. Vigorously stir the mixture to aerate the must and mix the honey.
4. Measure the OG. Oops I, forgot about it. I did track my gravity decline, and base on a linear progression I started somewhere around 1.084 OG - it was probably higher than that as it would have not been a linear relationship.
5. Add the glass marbles and 3lbs Saskatoons to your grain bag. The marbles will help sink the grain bag. I did not have enough marbles to counter the boyency of the bag. One of my spoons does fit in my primary bucket with the lid on so I am using that to hold the fruit below the surface.
6. After elevating I used a heat belt as my basement is cool in the winter.
7. I fermented in the primary for 18 days.
8. After 18 days I removed the berries and racked to a carboy. I left it here for another 7 days.
9. Prepared Potassium Metabisulfite and added it to the carboy. I mixed the potassium meta in my graduated cylinder with some melomel which I extracted using the wine thief. Waited 2 days.
10. Prepared Potassium Sorbate and added it to the carboy. Again, I mixed this in the graduated cylinder with some melomel. The wine thief came in handy here too. Waited 2 days. Now when I add the remaining berries, I'll also sweeten it some.
11. At this stage I added the remaining 7lbs of Saskatoons to two carboys, a 6gal and a 3.5 gal carboy. I put about 2.3lbs in the smaller carboy and 4.6lbs in the other. I didn't have enough mead to fill both carboys so I purged the shoulder space with CO2. At this point I transfer about 2/3rds of the melomel into one, and 1/3rd into the other. I also added peptic enzyme to the carboys. I waited 7 days.
12. Clearing. I hydrated the bentonite and racked both carboys to a single 6gal carboy. I purged to shoulder space with CO2
13. 3 to 5 days later it cleared very nicely.
14. Bulk aging. Again I purged a clean carboy with CO2, and now I'm bulk aging it. I accidentally bumped my table at the end a ended of transferring some of the lees in the process - it should settle. I plan on bulk aging it for a couple month or more prior to bottling (depends how quickly I need the extra carboy).
I usually do beer, wines, and ports. Here is my first venture into Melomel.
Ingredients
-------------
15.4 lbs (7 kg) of local farm honey
3lbs + 7lbs of farm fresh Saskatoons
Yeast Nutrients
Dry Yeast
Potassium Metabisulfite
Potassium Sorbate
Peptic Enzyme
Bentonite
Extra Equipment
------------------
Flask and Stir Plate
Heat belt
C02
graduated cylinder
wine thief
scale
Prep
-------------
Freeze your berries! This helps with extraction from the berries as the water in the berries freezes and breaks the membranes.
Yeast Starter (well, sort of)
-----------------------------
Normally I would have used a liquid yeast and created a yeast starter. This time I was using a dry yeast. I added 1L of warm water, yeast nutrients, and dry yeast to my flask and aerated it for 15 mins on my stir plate.
Instructions
----------------------
1. Warm your honey, I did not boil my honey at all. I wanted to keep as much of the flower profile included in the honey as possible. Plus I read too much on the big debate regarding the need to boil honey and just went simple.
2. Clean and Sanitize everything
3. Add honey and warm water to reach target volumn to primary bucket and mix well. Vigorously stir the mixture to aerate the must and mix the honey.
4. Measure the OG. Oops I, forgot about it. I did track my gravity decline, and base on a linear progression I started somewhere around 1.084 OG - it was probably higher than that as it would have not been a linear relationship.
5. Add the glass marbles and 3lbs Saskatoons to your grain bag. The marbles will help sink the grain bag. I did not have enough marbles to counter the boyency of the bag. One of my spoons does fit in my primary bucket with the lid on so I am using that to hold the fruit below the surface.
6. After elevating I used a heat belt as my basement is cool in the winter.
7. I fermented in the primary for 18 days.
8. After 18 days I removed the berries and racked to a carboy. I left it here for another 7 days.
9. Prepared Potassium Metabisulfite and added it to the carboy. I mixed the potassium meta in my graduated cylinder with some melomel which I extracted using the wine thief. Waited 2 days.
10. Prepared Potassium Sorbate and added it to the carboy. Again, I mixed this in the graduated cylinder with some melomel. The wine thief came in handy here too. Waited 2 days. Now when I add the remaining berries, I'll also sweeten it some.
11. At this stage I added the remaining 7lbs of Saskatoons to two carboys, a 6gal and a 3.5 gal carboy. I put about 2.3lbs in the smaller carboy and 4.6lbs in the other. I didn't have enough mead to fill both carboys so I purged the shoulder space with CO2. At this point I transfer about 2/3rds of the melomel into one, and 1/3rd into the other. I also added peptic enzyme to the carboys. I waited 7 days.
12. Clearing. I hydrated the bentonite and racked both carboys to a single 6gal carboy. I purged to shoulder space with CO2
13. 3 to 5 days later it cleared very nicely.
14. Bulk aging. Again I purged a clean carboy with CO2, and now I'm bulk aging it. I accidentally bumped my table at the end a ended of transferring some of the lees in the process - it should settle. I plan on bulk aging it for a couple month or more prior to bottling (depends how quickly I need the extra carboy).